Ludifying Lovecraft in Arkham Horror - Game Play: Paratextuality in Contemporary Board Games - page 8

the operational and the implicit rules of the game are the constitutive rules of
the game, the “underlying formal structures that exist 'below the surface' of the
rules.” 15 Constitutive rules are the mathematical logics that guide the allowable
permutations of a game. Rules have a “mechanical rigor” and an “algorithmic
speciicity” that help determine the play experience. 16 Matthew Berland goes so
far as to argue that “playing strategic tabletop games requires that individuals
think like a computer.” 17 he constitutive rules are what lead games researcher
Greg Costikyan to argue that, for instance, Tic-Tac-Toe is “a trivial” game
because “you know that the outcome of the game is utterly certain.” he game
is only enjoyable when “the naïve player has not yet learned, or igured out, that
the game has an optimal strategy.” 18 Once the underlying logic of the game has
been uncovered, the uncertainty in outcome is resolved.
As Berland intimates, today's complex paratextual board games relect an
algorithmic approach to contemporary media. For new media theorist Lev
Manovich, the rules governing digital technology represent one of the core
tenets of a profound shit toward algorithmic functionality in our everyday
lives. Yet, as Mark Deuze notes, new media characteristics “are not brand
new phenomena that jumped into being the moment the irst computer went
online.” 19 Paratextual board games—as with all board games—already relect the
algorithmic characteristics of new media technologies, and as such, form a type
of symbolic partnership with new media that refocuses attention on how we
interpret ludic elements within our contemporary media environment.
hrough manipulation, says Manovich, all new media objects are subject to
algorithmic change, and become programmable. his programmability happens
because new media objects are numerical (based in binary code), modular
(constructed of interchangeable parts), automated (can work without human
intervention), and variable (can be adjusted to suit the context). hese four
characteristics reveal a ith—that “the logic of a computer can be expected to
signiicantly inluence the traditional cultural logic of media.” In other words,
the metaphor of the computer guides the way we see the world around us—
the way we interpret information (we “input” it), understand the relationship
between people and objects (we are “networked” to others), even describe the
functionality of the human body (the brain is a giant “hard drive”)—and has
been “transcoded” into all levels of human culture. 20 Importantly, the transcoding
nature of new media reveals the algorithms of contemporary culture—the scripts
that automate and structure our everyday lives.
Aspects of paratextual board games reveal their algorithmic bases. Any
particular session of game play can contain elements that are manipulable